Ivory Coast Upsets Ecuador In Back and Forth Game
- Staff Writer
- 7 hours ago
- 2 min read
Credit Petr David Josek/AP via france24
NATIONAL SOCCER NEWS: www.nationalsoccernetwork.com
By: Richard Strickland
In the second match of Group E’s opening day, Ecuador was upset by Ivory Coast in the 90th minute.
After watching group mates Germany and Curacao, one had to assume Ecuador being a top 25 team in the FIFA rankings coming into the World Cup would likely take this match. Instead, Ivory Coast did to them what they did to France in the warm up games which was STUN Ecuador.
Ivory Coast’s first chance came in the 17th minute on a beautiful pass from to Toure but the shot would go just wide of the goal off of a diving Galindez glove.
Ecuador almost took a 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute when a poorly played ball ended up at the feet of Yeboah who would hit the cross bar on his shot. Just 7 minutes later, Valencia would also hit the cross bar after a beautiful through ball.
During the first half stoppage time Ivory Coast had a bicycle kick shot that would go just over the cross bar which would send us to halftime all tied up without a goal.
Ivory Coast would come out in the second half with speed having 2 close ones in the first 5 minutes of the second half, with one hitting the cross bar and the other going over. It felt as if Ivory Coast came out the hungrier team.
The pressure didn’t stop from Ivory Coast with 2 fresh bodies they kept putting the pressure on Ecuador’s defense and goalie with 2 more high pressure shots one going just high and the other being a nice save from Galindez who didn’t see it until late.
The save of the night, though, has to go to Fofana, who made a nice ranging glove save off a Plata shot from the top of the 18 yard box in the 69th minute.
However, it was Ivory Coast who would shock us all tonight in the 90th minute. It was a play that started deep in their own half with a pass from Fofana to Singo, who passed it to Diallo; he sent a left footed shot into the back of the net, causing the Ivory Coast sideline to erupt as they would hold on to steal this one from Ecuador.
Team Ratings -
Ecuador: B+
Ecuador for much of the game controlled the possession and had their fair chances to take control of the game, not just early in the game but throughout. They were just extremely unlucky with their shots throughout the night with multiple shots hitting the cross bar.
Ivory Coast: B+
Ivory Coast made use of every chance they got out shooting Ecuador 16-10 and having a 4-1 advantage on shots on goal. However, they must clean up their game if they want a shot to continue their streaks of shocking wins against Germany, as they were at times overly aggressive leading to 3 yellows.
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